#Follow Friday: Chicago Dyke March Collective!

When did your organization, Chicago Dyke March Collective , decide to join the No Cop Academy campaign? Why?

Dyke March Chicago first learned about the No Cop Academy campaign through one of our core organizers, Melisa Stephen, in September 2017. When we heard about the plans to build a $95 million police training facility in West Garfield Park, a community that has been subjected to police violence for decades, we knew we had to get involved in the fight to stop the cop academy from becoming a reality.

How has your organization contributed to the campaign?

Members of our collective have been involved with several facets of the campaign nearly since its inception. Chicago Dyke March members have contributed to the research team and Westside canvassing teams, led teach-ins educating community members about the proposed academy, conducted alderperson visits, and made public comments against the building of the academy during a meeting of the City Council’s Housing and Real Estate committee.

What has been your organization’s highlight of the campaign?

In September 2017, we participated in one of the first train takeovers the campaign organized along with folks from Assata’s Daughters, the BTGNC Collective and the People’s Response Team. We had a great time chanting and distributing information about the cop academy under the leadership of our youth organizers! It was energizing to talk with so many people who upon learning about the academy (and how much of the budget CPD receives) agreed that it was a horrible idea.

What strategies/tactics/frameworks does your organization bring to the Campaign?

Chicago Dyke March exists as an affirmation and celebration of the resiliency of the queer and trans community, especially those who are Black, Indigenous or people of color. The realization of this academy, which will only make an already unaccountable police more deadly, will be directly harmful to many of the folks we hold so dear. Also, during Dyke March 2018, our collective chose to uplift the struggles of those who are undocumented migrants and Palestinians, abroad and locally. It is important that we raise awareness about the many atrocities that are continually committed, be it by the police in Chicago, Border Patrol or by the Israeli government, and that we build cross-movement coalitions to ensure that our oppressions (and thus, our liberation) are not siloed but connected.